Thursday, April 19, 2012

India test-fires Agni V missile successfully

India nowadays took an enormous leap in fortifying its strategic capability by successfully test-firing its nuclear capable Agni-V Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with a strike vary of five,000 km, bringing China and also the neighbouring region beneath its cowl.

With this, India joined the elite missile club of the US, Russia, France and China.

The surface-to-surface Agni-V is capable of placing a target over five,000 km away. it's concerning 17-metres-long and two-metres-wide with launch weight of around fifty tonnes. the delicate missile will carry a nuclear warhead of over one tonne.

“We had a successful launch of Agni-V. The missile lifted off at eight.07 hours nowadays,” Defence analysis and Development Organisation chief V K Saraswat said when the three-stage solid propellant missile was take a look at fired from launch complex-4 of Integrated take a look at vary (ITR) in Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast.

Agni-V had a sleek and ideal vertical lift-off from the launcher and an intensive analysis was done to assess its health parameters when retrieval of information from the wide selection of subtle communication network systems, Saraswat said.

“The sleek missile, among some seconds of its blast-off from the Island launch pad roared majestically into the sky jilting its a trajectory a path of skinny orange and white smoke before disappearing,” a defence official said.

The test-fire, that was originally scheduled to be held yesterday, had to be deferred at the last moment for safety reasons thanks to dangerous weather marked by rains and serious lightning.

New Delhi’s deterrence capability can currently be more strengthened and it'll push its case for having a bigger say at multilateral fora.

India has nowadays in its armoury of Agni series, Agni one with 700 km vary, Agni two with two,000 km vary, Agni three and Agni four with two,500 km to over three,500 km vary.

Hailing the successful launch of the indigenously developed missile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it represents another milestone in India’s quest to feature to its security preparedness.

Defence Minister A K Antony described the maiden take a look at flight of Agni-V as an “immaculate success” and a “major milestone”.

“The nation stands tall nowadays. we've joined the elite club of countries (to possess the ICBM capability),” Antony told Saraswat on phone when the take a look at flight of the missile was declared successful.

ITR Director S P Dass said, “It was an ideal launch and also the missile hit the pre-determined target and also the mission met all its parameters.

“We will decision it an ICBM because it has the aptitude to travel from one continent to a different,” Dass said.

“The missile achieved specifically what we tend to needed to realize during this mission. This missile from the prime board to launch pad went on in concerning 3 years,” the missile’s Programme Director Avinash Chandra said.

The test-firing of Agni-V demonstrated large strides taken by India in its integrated missile development programme, he said.

Preparation for Agni-V take a look at had gathered momentum when India achieved successful results from the primary development trial of Agni IV, that contains a strike vary of over three,500 km, from an equivalent launch pad on November fifteen, 2011.

Apart from Saraswat, who is additionally the scientific advisor to the Defence Minister, a number of prime defence scientists, military officers and functionaries of involved agencies were gift at the location to observe, supervise and witness the maiden take a look at of the new generation missile.

Top scientists gift at the take a look at website said a minimum of twenty laboratories of the DRDO were engaged for many months to arrange the state-of-the-art missile.

About 800 scientists, employees and support personnel had been engaged to create the primary ever launch of the Agni-V successful, they said.

Unlike alternative missiles of indigenously engineered Agni series, the newest one - Agni V - is that the most advanced version having many new technologies incorporated in it in terms of navigation and steering, warhead and engine, said a scientist related to the project.

Satish Reddy, architect of the missile navigation systems, said, “The systems have worked with high accuracy... we tend to don’t need any further technology from anybody else.

DRDO plans to conduct additional such tests of the missile over future one year when finding out and analysing the parameters achieved in every subsequent trial, defence sources said.

Regarding the timeline fastened for totally developing the Agni V, Saraswat had earlier said another year of testing would be needed.

Known as ‘Agni Lady’, an elated Katy Thomas, who has been concerned with the Agni project, said, “Today we've done an excellent event for the country. The mission was good with all the events being recorded and that we had an ideal separation. The stages of steering system worked splendidly.

“All the teamwork that has gone in for the last 3 years has given fruitful result nowadays,” she added.